A Tale of Cowardice and Pasta
by DreamsofAnotherReality
Summary: Leo Valdez did not now how he ended up sitting in a sewer hiding from the world's largest dog with a cowering Italian by his side.


Leo Valdez did NOT know how he ended up sitting in a sewer hiding from the world's largest dog with a cowering Italian by his side. It all started one morning when he ran away from yet another foster home. He was walking along the streets when some enormous dog decided he wanted to use Leo as a chew toy. Its beady eyes trained themselves on him and snarling, the creature lunged fangs first. So he did what any other sane teenage boy would do: he ran for dear life. Surprise, surprise the beast didn't seem to want to attack anybody else on the street but him, just his luck. Just then he crashed into somebody.

"Ve~Sorry! Are you alright?" a startled voice questioned. Before Leo could examine the stranger he remembered what he had been running from and with great bravado he leaped up and sprinted away.  
"Wait where are you…AHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT IS THAT THING? GGEEEERRRRMMMMMMAAANNNNNYYYYY HEEEELLLLLPPP MEEEEE!" The stranger screamed and successfully dashed right past Leo in an attempt to flee. Looking behind him Leo spotted the black beast still hounding after him and now the stranger too. Just great. How did this dog keep chasing him through the crowd of people….scent! Dogs hunted by scent! So if Leo could just hide his scent…. A solution was given to him in the form of a sewer entrance.

"Hey you! Run into that sewer entrance! Trust me!" Leo yelled to the fleeing man who ran INCREDIBLY fast.  
"VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" The stranger screeched but seemingly heard him due to the fact that he ran straight into the stinky entrance with Leo close on his heels. Both of them stood panting inside the atrocious sewer not daring to make a sound until they heard the pattering of paws pass safely away.

"THANK THE LORD!" Leo gasped.  
"Ve~so scary! What was that thing?" the man whimpered and Leo turned to finally get a get a proper look at the man. He had to be in his late teens or early twenties, with auburn hair, a strange curl and oddly enough, closed eyes…maybe the stink in the sewer was affecting his vision? The man was dressed in a black tie and suit as if he'd come from a meeting.

"So I'm Leo Valdez it's nice to meet you…"  
"Si! It's nice to meet you too! My name is Feliciano Vargas!" the suit man beamed giving him a bone crunching hug "You must be from big brother Spain's place judging by your last name~ ve"  
"Uh…yeah my…My mother was Spanish." He answered ignoring the fact that Feliciano had spoken of Spain as a person "Anyway I think we should stay here for a bit until we're sure that…the huge dog left I mean."  
"Si."

"So what's up with the suit and tie?" Leo couldn't help but ask as he fiddled with his hands, he always had difficulty keeping still.  
"I was at a world meeting…Ve~ I guess you could say I'm a country representative!"  
"Cool…so what country?"

"North Italy!" Feliciano beamed, his love for the country was obvious.  
"Er..isn't Italy unified though? There's no more North and South right?"  
Feliciano quieted down as if deep in thought "Ve~It is unified but it will always remain separate!"  
"Uh…right, if you say so."

"Do you like pasta? I really do! If you like it I should make you some later! Big brother says I make good pasta well to be honest he said 'your pasta is a thousand times more bearable than the English bastards food' but I think that was a compliment! Even Ger…Ludwig likes my pasta! Kiku said it's good too but every time I serve him some he puts lots of salt on it….weird right?" Feliciano babbled, making Leo wonder if he was breathing at all.

"Um…pasta's alright." Leo answered hesitantly…honestly he hadn't really tried the stuff since he kept getting sent to foster homes that didn't know the proper definition of edible. Feliciano hummed in agreement and began to softly sing an odd song.  
"Draw a circle that's the earth! Draw a circle that's the earth! Draw a circle that's the earth my name's Hetalia~"

"What's Hetalia supposed to mean?" Leo asked half out of curiosity and half to make Feliciano stop singing.  
"For fun one day all the representatives made up some theme songs during one meeting, so that's what the song is as for Hetalia… Italia is literally 'Italy' in Italian which explains the "talia" part as for the 'He' I took it from the Japanese word Hetare which basically translates to cowardly and useless~ Useless Italy basically." Feliciano laughed.

"It's a sort of odd name isn't it?" Leo asked. Who would want to be called useless?  
"Really? I think it's fitting. I've never really done anything but run from battles, run from fights, and run from things I didn't want to accept. Doesn't that make me useless?" Feliciano asked honestly. Leo frowned. If Feliciano was a coward…than so was he. All he'd ever done was run. Run from foster homes, run from accepting his mother's death. He might as well change his name to Hetare Leo.

"But being a coward isn't always a bad thing! Si, I think it's not such a bad thing anyway." Feliciano informed him.  
"And why is that?" he asked honestly curious.

"Ve~think of it this way! Running away just means you're saving your courage for later. Being useless means that you're saving your usefulness for later. That's what I think, because a long time ago I always depended on others to protect me and fight for me, but now if any of those friends need my help I'll use all the courage and usefulness that I've saved up after all this time and make sure to help them. You have to stop running sometime right?"  
"That makes absolutely no sense." Leo informed Feliciano.

"Ve~ well I'm basically just saying that even if you're useless now doesn't mean you'll always be useless and cowardly, people can change no matter how much time has gone by! Si?"  
"That was surprisingly deep…." Leo told him.  
"Ve~really? Yay! Did I sense the mood? Ludwig will be so happy! GAH I'M LATE FOR THE MEETING! LUNCH BREAK ENDED A LONG TIME AGO! VE~" Feliciano panicked then hugged Leo once again.  
"Ve~it was nice to meet you Leo! Ciao!" and with a blink of an eye the strange Italian was gone leaving Leo with the best advice he'd ever gotten as well as a craving for pasta.

* * *

**This is my first fanfic in forever...I really should be updating my other stories but I just can't seem to make myself do it...I am so sorry...  
****The dog chasing Leo in the beginning was a hell hound by the way! Italy was strangely philosophical in this story...**

**Thank you so much to all my followers, I am so sorry for being gone for so long!**


End file.
